I know that when I think of a game called Aero Elite: Combat Academy I think of a fast, exciting flight sim that straps you into sweet jets and has you do cool maneuvers while shooting down bogeys and avoiding missiles. Well, to my dismay, shooting down bogeys was the only thing the game had. It’s a shame that this Playstation 2 game was really quite boring.

Aero Elite is centered around a Combat Academy where you train to become a fighter pilot. There are plenty of different training missions that teach you how to pilot your craft efficiently. You’ll be required to fly many different aircrafts like bombers, helicopters, and jets to accomplish the goals given to you during your training. The training starts out very easy. Your goals all throughout training are pretty simple, making it hard to get through them without moving on to something else.

After awhile you may become comfortable enough to enter the Aero Meet 2002, a competition between you and other academy pilots. The Aero Meet covers many aspects of flying and offers challenges in Air-to-Air, Surface, Maneuver, and Recon. In most of the challenges you are either trying to compete with the clock or another AI pilot. These are a little more entertaining than the training modes. You’re actually putting your skills to use.

Arcade Mode is by far the most entertaining mode. It puts you into instant action, giving you targets to destroy. The gameplay is still the same as when you’re training, though: slow. Arcade Mode is kind of like a story mode, including cut scenes between missions, but each mission is almost exactly the same as the last. Each mission’s goal is to shoot down the enemy planes. Usually you start quite a distance away from your target, so most of the mission is spent getting close to the target. Once in range you can shoot down most of the enemies. It ends up turning into a shooting gallery, which can get old fast. Plus there’s no saving in between missions! I didn’t think it would be a problem, until I played about five missions and started getting bored. Aside from these gripes, I had the most fun with this mode.

There are two more modes: Free Flight and Vs. Battle. Free Flight is exactly what it sounds like – no goals or objectives, just fly. Vs. Battle allows you and a friend to dogfight, which ends up turning into a quick draw match. The first person to shoot usually wins. That lasted about six rounds for yours truly.

The plane models look nice, but nothing else seems to have the same level of detail. You don’t have to be very close to the ground to realize that most of its geography is a texture. Even the explosions of enemy planes look flat and unattractive. The reason I say enemy planes is because your plane doesn’t explode unless you hit water. Even flying straight into a building, mountain, or the ground will result in your plane sliding along the ground rather than exploding.

The sound effects are nothing to complain about; they fit nicely. The only thing annoying about the sound is the music. It’s mostly rock that’s either fast and redundant, or slow like elevator music. There should have been a wider variety of music; faster, more interesting music may have made the game feel more exciting than it really is.

I don’t want to say that this is a bad game, because I can see where it has its ups and downs. Aero Elite tries to focus mainly on realistic controls and maneuvers rather than graphics or action. With such realistic controls I expected at least realistic speed, but upon lowering to about 100 feet, it felt like I was going about 30 miles per hour. I think flight sim fans that enjoy flying might have fun with Aero Elite: Combat Academy, but gamers expecting intense dogfights and blistering speed will be disappointed.     

Gameplay: 5
They did a good job making this game realistic, but while they were busy doing that they forgot to make it fun. Aero Elite never had me on the edge of my seat, which is what I expect from a flight sim based on air combat. The only exception is arcade mode, which unfortunately has its flaws as well.

Graphics: 6.5 
The plane models look really good, along with the ships in the sea. The terrain looks very detailed from a distance, but unfortunately it’s not a very long distance. Plus the explosions look like they belong in a Playstation game, not a Playstation 2 game.

Sound: 7
The soundtrack is a bit lacking, but the sound effects and voice acting are actually pretty good. The sad thing is that you don’t hear the sound effects and voice acting as often as you hear the music. The music is either really slow, or it’s an upbeat rock n’ roll tune – the problem is that while flying long distances the rock n’ roll can get very repetitive.

Difficulty: Hard
Diehard flight sim fans might say otherwise, but flying a plane is tough. Going through training is fairly easy at first, but quickly becomes more difficult once you start flying a helicopter.  

Concept: 4 
Realistic, objective based flying games have been done in the past (and were done well). Aero Elite did nothing to reinvent the genre; in fact it almost feels like they took a step back.

Multiplayer: 7
The multiplayer versus mode is fun for a short period of time. Easily the most entertaining part of the game, it gets old pretty quick when your battles last less than a minute.

Overall: 6.4
I’ve never flown a plane before, but I imagine that it’s difficult. If this is the case, then Aero Elite: Combat Academy is a realistic flight sim. Sometimes realistic games can drive people away, which is what Aero Elite did for me. Most of the time I was doing nothing but trying to get in range of my target, then shot a missile. Other times I was being shot at, but couldn’t maneuver quick enough to get away. Aero Elite: Combat Academy just didn’t pull me in, but I see how fans of dog fighting simulations could enjoy it.